On Sunday afternoon we went to the port area where Grimaldi store there unloaded vehicles to look through the fence at our loved one . When we got there there were several other campers but no Cloud 9 and nobody to ask.
During that evening I convinced myself that our truck was still in a car park in Tilbury, London . Not too much sleep was had that night .
The next morning I went to KMA ( Grimaldi's local theft agency ) and they assured me that It was here, so I paid the bail money and the process for its release was started.
Our Local guy Eduardo Kessler was just fantastic ( I would always recommend him ) and by 2pm we were heading to the port to get it.
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| Not sure how to get it out |
It transpired that the storage compamy at the port had parked my vehicle inside a building for safe keeping because it had a Scooter on the back.
We still needed to pay the Customs import duty and get our Temporary Import Licences for both the Truck and the Motorcycle. The Aduane Officer ( Customs Agent ) was a bit of a character. We first found him lying fast asleep on a bench near the customs offices. We woke him up and after a few minutes and a couple of cigarettes he was ready to go. He really went went for it peaking at about 2 words per minute on a computer that he clealy hated. 30 minutes later two the two permits were handed to me but unfortunately he had recorded my name on all documents ( copied from my passport ) as Neil British Citizen. I pointed it out and after a small episode of Spanish tourettes he started again.
By about 5pm we were able to return Cloud 9 and drive her away.
I must just add that the whole process which had stressed me out was infact totally without drama and thanks to Eduardo went perfectly smooth
Now here is a strange thing . When we got back to our vehicle there was a photograph tucked under our windscreen wiper . At first i thought it was a Pizza offer or something similar, but when we looked it clearly was someones personal picture with bluetack on the back of it. How it got onto my widscreen is still a mystery. It showed a couple on scooters with small kids. I nearly put in in the bin but for some reason threw it in the truck to be dealt with later .
This day had been planned with military precision . we were to quickly collect our luggage from the BnB then set off "West" along the coast out of town to a camp area we had identified . So having got the bags I set of "East" in totally the wrong direction. Having realised our mistake we pitched into a small coastal road near the Montevideo Yacht Club as we had heard you can park there.
Already parked up was a French Overland truck so I knocked on the door to say hello. I looked up to see the same faces that were in the photo I had found earlier on our truck. I couldn't believe it and neither could they. They had lost this picture ealier that day.
We spent 4 nights parked here sorting things out and really enjoyed meeting Loic, Raphaelle and their three fantastic children.
We were also joined by another French family who had been on the road for 4 years with their children and and a family from the Dominican Republic / France who were doing the same .
I was so impressed with the strict home schooling regime that even included homework and detentions.
Our next destination is Colonia which is apparently about 190 Km "West" . Lets hope we get there .
